Good morning. This is Doug Chabot with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Advisory issued on Thursday, March 12th, at 7:30 a.m. Northern Lights Trading Company, in cooperation with the Friends of the Avalanche Center, sponsor today’s advisory. This advisory does not apply to operating ski areas.
In case you were holed up in a windowless room, here’s what happened with the weather yesterday—it was sunny. Expect the same today, and again tomorrow. Ridgetop winds have been blowing westerly at 10-20 mph with the Bridger Mountains getting 20-30 mph. Temperatures are in the single digits but will rise into the high 20s today. Our next shot of snowfall appears to be late Saturday night, so don’t fret that winter is over.
The Bridger, Gallatin and Madison Ranges, the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone, the mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range:
I rode into the Lionhead area outside West Yellowstone yesterday. I saw two large avalanches that likely ran on a layer of facets two feet under the surface. Sure enough, in my
Deeper in the snowpack are facets near the ground straining to hold up the winters snow. Yesterday I dug a seven foot snow pit to find these. I was in this exact location a week ago, but the snow was now three feet deeper. I carefully isolated a column, stemmed across the pit, and did a compression test. It broke clean 16 inches off the ground on 27 taps. Not good. Facets on the ground should never be trusted. Check out photos of recent avalanches and a video of my snow pit on our website.
Photos: http://www.mtavalanche.com/photos/photos.php
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGZmmPnTROQ
From last Wednesday through Monday morning the mountains got hit with two to three feet of snow and southwest winds. Clear skies made it easy to find avalanches that released this weekend. No mountain range was spared and some of the
UPCOMING EVENTS
Make plans to attend the 28th Annual Pinhead Classic Telemark Festival this Saturday, March 14th, at Bridger Bowl. This year’s theme is “The Olympics” with events for all ages and all abilities. Prizes are awarded for everything but the fastest time and all proceeds benefit the Friends of the Avalanche Center. A registration fee of $30 gets you a ½ -day rate lift ticket, t-shirt, commemorative pint glass, multiple laps on the dual slalom course, numerous prizes and awards, and dinner, dancing, unlimited beverages, and live music at the Emerson that evening. Visit www.pinheadclassic.com for more information.
Karl Birkeland will issue the next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. If you get out in the backcountry give us a call or send us an email with your observations. You can reach us at 587-6984 or at mtavalanche@gmail.com.



